Commercial poultry farming is worldwide an activity of greater relevance, since it is responsible for the poultry production for productive purposes. Generally, it may be classified into two types of production places, depending on their technical degree:—hi-tech production places, dependent on various automated systems and—traditional or non-sophisticated places that depend largely on the man hand.
The hi-tech places are the most world widely used, with 75% of the commercial exploitation worldwide, producing more than fifty billion birds annually to produce meat. The hi-tech production places include an automation in all their needed systems for an intensive production, such as: feeder systems, coupling drinking systems, feeder and drinking suspension systems, air-conditioning systems, among others.
While the traditional or non-sophisticated locals are rudimentary and conventional, using manual equipment such as hanging feeders and bell-type hanging drinking devices, manual energized heaters, manual curtains, all thereof are totally dependent on human supervision at all times for their proper functioning.
Poultry production comprises between four to six stages. The production of birds to produce meat generally ends between the fifth and ninth week of age, depending on the specific type of bird that the market demands. The most important and critical stages of a bird's life are the initiation and growth stages (on which the present invention is focused), which includes the first three weeks of life, being the first two weeks as the most important and representing up to 30% of the bird's life, which is when the newly born birds come out of the incubation location and arrive at the production location where they have to learn to quickly eat and drink, and because of its body and immunological immaturity, there is a need to provide a strict environmental and health control, which, otherwise would result in a significant delay in their development and increased bird mortality.
The most important supply in this industry is the bird food, which is provided in bulk, which represents 75% of the total production cost, being the most important factor to rationing and that any action that is intended to maximize the feeding utilization will result in a greater productive efficiency by increasing the economic benefit to the poultry producer.
The “on-floor feeding system” is the traditional way to feed the chicken in their first few weeks of life which includes supplying food to the floor without any restriction, presenting a number of disadvantages and problems, such as is the high risk of contamination (and therefore the spread of diseases), waste of food, low feed intake, low productive efficiency, and high production costs, impacting the efficiency of the poultry producer. It has been observed that the “on-floor feeding system” is an important factor for the transmission of serious infections to humans, by which it has taken a relevant interest as a public health problem.
In spite of the fact that hi-tech production places have automatic feeding systems, through automatic type feeders, these are not designed to properly feed the birds during their first few weeks of age so they cause a lot of the above-mentioned problems, such as food contamination and low productivity. To improve the effectiveness of the automatic feeders, there are inserted feeding systems in the traditional on-floor systems that involve the use of plastic trays/cardboard, carpets of paper strips r, or simply to supply food to the birds in the first days of life. These traditional auxiliary feeding sources are used only the first seven days of life, because the waste of food increases proportionally with the age of the birds, as well as the food contamination problems, and increased risk of contamination between birds.
They are used in general within the tech farms, two large families of feeders:
The automatic type, that is adjustable, is connected to a common food supply. Dependent on an automatic feeding system, this type corresponds to the feeder of the present invention; and
The non-automatic type, not connected feeders, which include plastic trays/cardboard, carpets of paper strips, to the direct floor and cylindrical manual feeders.
The automatic type feeders are usually of rounded shape, although there are feeders of different shapes and sizes, oval, triangular, hexagonal, square and rectangular, but none of rectangular-rounded shape, that is to say, rectangular with rounded ends, as shown by the feeder for the present invention. A common problem is that the automatic feeders occupy a large space inside the production location by which a smaller number of birds per square meter is placed, reducing productivity. In addition, feeders having oval corners or edges, cause a great conflict for the birds at the time of feeding, since birds dispute and fight for the same eating space, thus the food consumption is significantly lower and therefore the production results are not satisfactory.
The plastic/metal/cardboard trays have a generally rounded or rectangular shaped, and a low height, adequate to allow the birds from the first day of age to easily jump and eat within it, leading to pollution, food waste and spread of diseases by allowing the birds to walk and even sleep within the feeder, also taking up space from the other birds to eat.
As in the trays, the existing automatic type feeders have the disadvantage of allowing the birds to introduce themselves into the plate, walk on the food (contaminating and wasting it), and allowing resting or sleeping within the plate.
The state of the art feeders at the end of the flock and leaving the production location without birds, do not have mechanisms to keep over the level of the tubes, as performed by the feeder of the present invention, which makes the washing and disinfecting work difficult.
In the state of the art, there are several documents relating to automatic feeders, and within the components of these feeders, a relevant part is the connection devices between the feeder and the food supply tube to the feeder, the shape of the tray, and the search for a better distribution of birds and food in order to increase the productivity of bird production systems.
There is, for example, the document ES 238,056, which is entitled “Improved Dosing Hopper, for Feeding Birds” which is a utility model, although it is found in the state of the art of the present invention, the configuration and feeding form of the product to the hopper, differ significantly from those used in the present invention. Also it is known the ES2,117,148 patent, entitled “Device for Feeding Farmyard Poultry”. This device has a circular shape and the product feeding is also performed by an upper duct, but not using a system such as the one described in the present invention on the basis of a choke. The patent ES2,172,428, entitled “Feeder for Farmyard Poultry” is of connectable type to a horizontal tubular conduit (4), such as that of the present invention, for the bulk transport of food for poultry and comprises a main vertical tubular body (1), an integral feeding necklace (6), an outer cone (11), an inner cone (14), a distributing vertical tubular body (17) and an integral plate (20) there between, all of them coaxially arranged and adapted so the change in level of the horizontal tubular conduit (4) causes the sliding of the main vertical tubular body (1) with respect to the distributing vertical tubular body (17), producing the downloading of the food in the plate (20) through lateral openings (5, 6, 18) of which are located on the main vertical tubular body (1), the inner cone (14) and the distributing vertical tubular body (17), or alternatively via inferior openings of the distributing vertical tubular body (17). The feeder can be placed in two positions, the feeding and the cleaning. Important considerations to note are the fact that the present invention comprises a valve for the supply of the product toward the feeder, while the '148 patent requires the rising of the horizontal feeding tube, which implies that the feeding is performed at the same time in each feeder regardless of whether it is required or not.
It is also found in the state of the art, the patent ES 2,202,275, which is entitled “Feeder or Feeding Box for Breeding Farmyard Birds in General”. To control the amount of food toward the device, this patent includes a cylindrical shutter 106 which has a tab that rotates the shutter to coincide with the feeding tube toward the plate that receives food, a very different action to the one used in the present document.
The patent ES 2,219,583 granted to Rouck, refers to an oval type feeder, the differences on the way to attach the feeder to the feeding tube and the way to distribute the food to the plate are obviously different with regard to the present invention. The outer shape of the plate is similar to the shape of the plate of the present invention, however as will be detailed later, the differences between both configurations are crucial for a better functioning of the feeder of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,581,512, mentions the importance of the tray on which the food is dropped and shows tray designs indicating that the best arrangement is the one shown and includes an elongated shape (oval) or in the shape of two circles that intersect (see summary). As specified in this patent '512, and in the rest of the documents, the configuration of the tray that receives the food and the separation system of the birds at the time of eating are important factors for which, through time, is seeking an ideal way to provide an adequate distribution of food from the horizontal tube, a proper distribution of the birds around the feeder so that they do not invade the same or dirty the food inside it, it has also sought a food supply system to the feeder and the feeder raising in order to properly clean the floor where it sits.
There is a need to develop an automatic type feeder attachable that can replace the traditional “on-floor feeding system”. The feeder must have enough features to be used under any type of use, such as in production locations where the birds are on the floor, in production locations where the birds in this cage, as “complementary feeder”, as “supplementary feeder”, or when the poultry feeder is used in a mixed manner, having the ability to achieve a greater efficiency in the feeding and in the productivity of the birds, mainly during the first three weeks of life, but can be used in later stages or other avian species, with the condition that the height thereof is such that it prevents them from entering the feeder.
Complementary Feeder: Meaning is defined as all feeding sources such as: plastic trays, paper strips, independent cylindrical feeders, etc. that are located between the automatic feeders, either below the automatic feeding tube or at the side thereof, so the food assortment is made in an automated manner, or manually, depending on the case.